Monthly Archives: April 2009

Despite a rainy start, a group of friends showed up to help us raise the Main South retaining wall arch. There wasn’t much heavy lifting to do because Dozy and the winch took care of that part but it took several hands to wrestle the ends into the brackets and to put up braces. We took it slow and easy with the winch but all in all it went much smoother than I thought it would. I’m sorry I didn’t take any pictures during the process because of the rain and being very focused. But I did set up my computer to shoot a time-lapse video (with a tarp protecting my computer). Check out the Raising Steel movie in the video section of the Blog page. Below are a couple of pictures I took after we finished (and the sun came out).

You can really get a sense of the angle of the retaining wall in this shot.

The 2X6 lumber will support this

arch until we have the rebar attached.

Below is a picture from the road. Cars are already stopping to get a look at the bizarre structure being built on the Bay Road.

This whole process is really impressive! Thanks for the great website to allow us to see it’s progress. I plan to be in Newport one of these days and will see it. But I love being able to see the steps along the way.

Sunday, April 26, 2009 – 10:44 PM

The Other Steve

Really enjoying the photos and blog of the building process — it’s quite an inspiration for many, myself included. It’s all this sweat and tears (and rain) that makes appreciating the final house when it’s all done, so much more than stepping into an already finished house. More sunny days ahead!

A few weeks ago, Jeff and I helped replace sections of the stage at the Newport Performing Arts Center. The result was that we got a stack of plywood. (If that plywood could talk, the stories it would tell)

We’ll be using Dozy to hoist the remaining large steel arches into place. The plywood will help protect the concrete floor.

Good thing Dozy’s small and agile.

Maneuvering the boom up through the arches.

Jeff is pulling the rope attached to the cable on the winch at the back of Dozy. With everything in place and secured, we are hoping the the weather will hold out long enough to gather some friends to help with the lifting process. Even though the winch will take care of the heavy lifting, we will need lots of hands to shore up the arch once it’s in place.